As a method for producing a fluorinated alcohol of the formula H(CF2CF2)mCH2OH (wherein m is 1 or 2), (1) a method is known in which excess methanol and tetrafluoroethylene are reacted in the presence of a dialkyl peroxide such as tert-butyl octyl peroxide as a reaction initiator to produce it as a telomer mixture of H(CF2CF2)kCH2OH (wherein k is an integer of from 1 to 12) (JP-A-54-154707 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,559,628).
Further, (2) as a method for purifying the telomer mixture, a method has been proposed in which methanol is distilled from the top of a distillation column, and as a side cut fraction, water and HF are distilled, and as a bottom liquid, a fluorinated alcohol is obtained (Japanese Patent No. 3,026,804).
In the telomer mixture of the method (1), an alcohol which is a decomposition product of the dialkyl peroxide, is usually contained, and there has been a problem that in the presence of such an alcohol, the purification yield of the fluorinated alcohol tends to be low. Further, in the method (2), together with the fluorinated alcohol, an alcohol as a decomposition product will remain in the bottom liquid, and there has been a problem that in the subsequent step, the load of the distillation step to obtain a high purity fluorinated alcohol, tends to be heavy, and the yield of the fluorinated alcohol also tends to be low.
It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and to provide a process for producing a fluorinated alcohol, whereby the desired fluorinated alcohol can be produced in good yield, and highly efficient purification can be carried out in a small number of process steps.